Evaluation of depressive and anxiety symptomatology in medical students at the University of Chile

The present study investigated the prevalence of anxious and depressive symptomatology in medical students at the University of Chile. It was obtained from the application of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) through a sample of 277 medical students from the University of Chile (50.9% male, 49.1% female). More than 50% presented some level of depressive symptomatology and 65% presented some level of anxiety symptomatology. 36.4% of the students met the criterion for depression syndrome and 30.3% for anxiety syndrome. The proportion of women with depressive syndrome is 1.3 times higher than that of men, and the proportion of women with anxiety syndrome is 1.6 times that of men. In this respect, the Psychology Unit of the Student Affairs Department (DAE) work for the prevention, early detection and timely treatment of mental disorders in students providing courses and education to the university community, as well as carrying out different lines of research.